Multifont photocomposing mechanism

ABSTRACT

THE USE OF AN OPTICAL WEDGE FOR DIRECTING THE BEAMS OF A PHOTOCOMPOSING MACHINE FROM ONE FONT TO ANOTHER BY MOVING THE WEDGE AND MASKING MEANS TO LIMIT THE OPTICAL FIELD.

United States Patent [191 Sinnott et al.

[ June 28, 1974 MULTIFONT PHOTOCOMPOSING MECHANISM [75] Inventors: DavidJ. Sinnott, Ringwood; Donald E. Alecci, Pine Brook, both of NJ.

[73] Assignee: Star-New Era, Inc., South Hackensack, NJ.

[22] Filed: Jilly 5, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 269,196

[52] US. Cl. 95/4.5 [51] Int. Cl B4lb 21/28 [58] Field of Search 95/4.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,680,534 8/1928 Garbutt355/52 2.180.417 11/1939 Huebner 95/4.5 3.254.579 6/1966 Higonnet r i h9. /4.5 3.504.600 4/1970 Grube .1 95/4.5

Primary Emminer-John M. Horan Attorney, Agent, or FirmHolland,Armstrong, Wilkie & Previto 57 ABSTRACT The use of an optical wedge fordirecting the beams of a photocomposing machine from one font to anotherby moving the wedge and masking means to limit the optical field.

18 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEUJUH 28 I974 I SHEET 3 {1F 3 1MULTIFONT PHOTOCOMPOSING MECHANISM DESCRIPTION The present invention isdirected to a photocomposing machine. In such machines, light isdirected from a light source through a character in a font of charactersand onto a reflecting surface'for redirection to a photosensitive sheetof material.

In some such machines, the font carrier is a strip of transparentmaterial with more than a single font on it. Heretofore, the change inthe use of one font or another has involved movement of the font or thelens system. In some machines, complicated masking means and movement ofthe light generating means has been necessary when it is desired tochange from one font to another. This is especially complicated if it isdesired to use more than a single font in the composition of aparticular piece such as the use of italics.

In addition, when alternating from one font to another, the field ofvision of the beam may encompass more than a single character as, forexample, when one goes from a larger type font to a smaller type font.Heretofore, complicated masking devices were associated with the fontand this again necessitated complicated control systems.

The present invention overcomes these difficulties and has for one ofits objects an improved photocomposing machine which can easily changethe direction of the beam.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an improvedphotocomposing machine which has an optical mechanism for redirectingthe path of the light beam from one font to another.

Another object of the present invention is the provi- I sion of animproved photocomposing machine for moving a redirecting surface toredirect the light beam from one path to another.

Another object of the present invention is an improved photocomposingmachine whereby masking means are mounted in the path of the light beamto change the optical field.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon anunderstanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described orwill be indicated in the appended claims, and various'advantages notreferred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employmentof the invention in practice.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes ofillustration and description and is shown in the accompanying drawings,forming a part of the specification, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a font carrier strip to be used-withthe present invention;

FIG. 3 is a top elevational view of the mechanism of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view thereof:

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view thereof:

FIG. 6 is a detailed view showing the position of the optical wedge fordirecting the beam in one direction against one font; and

FIG. 7 is a detailed view of the optical wedge showing it in position todirect the beam in another direction against another font.

The photocopy machine in which the present invention is particularlyadapted to be used is described and shown in US. Pat. application Ser.No. 825,692 filed May 19, 1969 and schematically shown in FIG. 1.

A source of light 1 is powered by a power supply 2 to create an intense,short burst of light 17 at a wave length most suited for thelight-sensitive material or film 16 being used. The source of light 1may be any high intensity coherent light source which gives amonochromatic beam, such as a laser or a zeon flash tube. Of course,other light sources may also be used, if desired;

The light beam 17 may pass through a modulator (not shown) and continuesto a character font drum assembly 4. The font drum assembly 4 which iscontinuously rotated by motor 19. The drum assembly 4 com prises drum40, having a film strip 4b consisting of a plurality of fonts oftransparent characters 42 and 4d. When the light beam 17 is generated,as explained in greater detail hereinafter, it is directed to areflecting mechanism 25, which, in the drawings, is shown as being apenta reflector. It is then redirected through a 7 selected character inthe font strip 4b and the image 17b formed of that character is directedto a lens system 8.

The lens system 8 will direct the character image ll7b to a reflectingsurface 9, which is shown in the application as a mirror, for reflectingthe character image 17b onto the photo-sensitive film 16 as at 26. Themirror 9 is moved by a motor 10 so that the image 17b of the characterprojected by the mirror 9 will be directed to a different part of thephoto-sensitive film 16 to form the line 26. In other words, as eachcharacter image 17b is flashed onto the sheet 16, the mirror 9 isadjusted to sweep an arc across the face of photo-sensitive material 16so that a line of characters 6 is impressed thereon.

The mirror 9 is moved in angular increments so that the line 6 will bejustified. The distance between the mirror 9 and the paper film 16 is sogreat that the distortion of the image projected on the paper isminimal, if at all.

At the end of a line 26 the film 16 is moved upwardly so that anotherline can be printed. The film then passes through a developer mechanism23 and is then cut by cutting mechanism 24 into strips for future useand assembly.

Above the bank of characters 4d and 4e on the rotating drum film strip4b, there is provided a plurality of counting gate openings 18. One gateopening 18 is mounted in line with characters 4d and 4e. The drum 4c isprovided with a light source 27 adapted to project light through eachgate opening 18 as the gate opening 18 passes thereby. The light isdirected onto a control photo diode 5. When the photo diode 5 isactivated a pulse is generated which is fed into a counter mechanism 6.The output of this counter 6 is fed to a gate 7 (which is connected tothe light power supply 2) and represents one of the conditions of thegate 7.

A tape reader 12 is adapted to sense code combinations on a tape (notshown) and transfer them to an electronic computer (not shown) which haspredetermined character and line data therein and which has storedtherein a particular number count to each character. The count istransferred to the gate mechanism 7 and when the count of a particularcharacter is I reached by the counter 6 it coincides with the count fromthe computer to satisfy conditions of gate 7.

Upon coincidence, a pulse is sent to the light powered supply 2 and tothe character width and spacing electronics (not shown). However, thesignal to the power supply 2 is inhibited. After a time interval, e.g.,2 microseconds, the mirror 9 is moved a predetermined angle directlyproportional to the width and spacing of the particular character to bereproduced. As soon as the mirror is in position, the inhibit is slowedand the light power supply 2 is activated to flash the light source 1.

It is sometimes desirable to utilize the two fonts 4d and 4e on thesingle strip 4b and to alternate between them. The direction of the beam17 must then be changed in order to cause it to pass through either ofthe two fonts 4d and 4e. In the present invention, this has beenaccomplished by using a refracting optical wedge 30 which directs thebeam through either font 42 or font 4d by changing the refracting anglethereof.

each of which has its outer face 33 and 34, respectively,

normal to the path of the light beam 17 and their inner faces 35contacting each other and at an angle to the path of the light 17. Theangle of the inner face 35 is predetermined depending upon how much thebeam 17 is to be directed as it passes through wedge 30.

In practice, the effective angle of the directface 31 of the wedge ischanged by rotating the wedge 30. Hence, when the optical wedge 30 is inone position, as shown in FIG. 6, the beam 17 will enter normal theretoand be directed in one predetermined path 17a. By rotating the wedge 30by an angle, for example, 180, the wedge 30 will be reversed so that theangle of the inner face is reversed and the beam 19 is now directed indirection 17b in a path which diverges from the path 17a.

Hence, the beam 17 may be directed along path 17a to pass through acharacter in font 4d or may be directed along path 17b to pass through acharacter in font 4e by rotating the wedge 30. Although two fonts 4d and4e have been shown in the drawings, it will be understood that aplurality of fonts may be used and that by rotating the wedge 30 in aplurality of different angles it is possible to direct the beam againstany single one of a plurality of fonts.

It will also be understood that any redirecting mechanism such as areflecting surface, may be used in place of the wedge 30, withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present invention.

The wedge is mounted on a frame member 60 which is attached to thesuperstructure of the machine having an upstanding arm 61 and a basemember 62. The wedge holder 50 has a stop 54 against which the lensesare to be mounted and a tubular removable inner sleeve '55 adapted topermit the lens to be replaced or adjusted, if necessary. The shutteropenings 41 in the shutters 42 are controlled by a shutter assemblymechanism 44 which is adapted to be moved inwardly and outwardly as thecase may be.

As was indicated, the font 4d may be smaller than the font 4e so thatthe field of vision of the beam 17a which is directed through font 4dmay now encompass more than a single character. Masking means in theform of shutter member with opening 41 therein is adapted to be insertedin the path of the beam 17a or b to reduce the optical field to a singlecharacter so that the beam can now make the image of a single characterin font 4d.

The mechanism for the wedge and shutters described above is shown indetail in FIGS. 3 to 7 and comprises the wedge 30 being mounted within arotatable sleeve 50'c'ontrolled by a control motor 51 through gearmember 52. When one font is to be viewed, the motor 51 will be activatedso that the gear mechanism 52 rotates the entire lens holder 50 onbearings 53. This rotation is in one direction or the other, as the casemay be.

The shutter mechanism 40 is controlled by solenoids 4.3 which areadapted to advance the shutter 42 or withdraw the shutters 42 dependingupon which letters of the smaller font 4d are to be used.

It will thus be seen that the present invention provides an improvedphotocomposing machine which can easily change the direction of the beamwhich has an optical mechanism for redirecting the path of the lightbeam from one font to another and which has masking means mounted in thepath of the light beam to change the optical field.

As many and varied modifications of the subject matter of thisinventionwill become apparentto those skilled in the art from the detaileddescription given hereinabove, it will be understood that the presentinvention is limited only as provided in the claims appended hereto.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A photocomposing machine comprising means for generating a beam oflight, a font assembly having a pair of fonts, optical beam divertingmeans interposed between said generating means and said font assemblyfor shifting the beam along a plurality of directions, reflector meansinterposed between said beam diverting means and said font to directsaid light beam through one of said fonts in said font assembly.

2. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidreflection means comprise means for bending the beam.

3. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein saidreflection means comprise optical redirecting means.

4. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 3, wherein saidreflection means comprise an optical redirecting surface.

5. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said opticalredirecting surface is movable to present a different angle to the beam.

6. A photocomposing machine as claimed in 5, wherein said surface is arotatably mounted angled surface.

7. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 6, wherein said beam isan optical wedge assembly.

8. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein said opticalwedge assembly is adapted to be rotated.

9. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said opticalwedge comprises a pair of wedges having angled surfaces.

10. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein said wedgesangled surfaces are in complementary relationship to each other.

11. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 10, wherein the angledsurfaces are in contact with each other.

12. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein motor meansare provided to cause the wedge to be rotated.

13. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein maskingmeans are mounted for movement into the path of the beam to alter thefield of the beam.

14. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim 13, wherein saidmasking means has an opening therein and is movable in front of saidbeam.

15. A photocomposing machine as claimed in claim within to permit thewedges to be removed.

